Diary
Donald Trump was gushing about one European leader in his Times interview this week. But it was the wrong one.…
Who commands the sea?
From ‘Raiders, submarines and some naval problems’, The Spectator, 20 January 1917: At the moment the enemy’s fleet is compelled to…
Australian letters
Rubbish in, rubbish out These are days of momentous, world-shaking, events. But none can match the global impact of the…
Portrait of the week
Home Britain will leave the single market on leaving the European Union, Theresa May, the Prime Minister, said in a…
Turnbull’s Labor dream
In 1993, Malcolm Turnbull was at a crossroads. Paul Keating had given the well-known journalist, lawyer, banker and republican his…
Ruing the day
Here comes Australia Day again and with it, like professional wailers preceding a Sicilian funeral, the chorus of media penitents…
Truth verboten
This time last year, the German media lost the confidence of the German people. News of the mass New Year’s…
Reconciliation or Revenge?
For a decade, a national apology was sought from Prime Minister John Howard. For a decade, he refused to provide…
Trump is our id, the Left is our super-ego
Trump’s inauguration will be loathed by many. While the meltdown of his enemies are too long and varied to document,…
Revealing nudes
Nude begins with that most perfect of bodies: champion archer Teucer drawing his bow, his youthful face absorbed in concentration,…
High Noon USA
It’s going to be spectacular, it’s going to be ugly and it’s going to be war. The liberal elites in…
Ideal homes
Artists, poets and philosophers have not paid much attention to Milton Keynes …although comedians have. This urban experiment has been…
Acting with a capital ‘A’
Let’s be clear: Jackie is a better performance than it is a film, although I suspect the performance will carry…
Great leaps forward
In the 1940s Lucian Freud took another young painter, Sandra Blow, up to the top of a bombed church in…
Safe and sound
This week the Southbank Centre began its ‘Belief and Beyond Belief’ festival — a series of concerts and talks claiming…
The xx: I See You
The xx is a trio of Londoners whose eponymous first album, released in 2009, has defined the way pop music…
Death rattle
The Barbican website warns us that Ligeti’s opera Le grand macabre ‘contains very strong language and adult themes’. The strong…
Spot the ball
The purest form of radio is probably sports commentating, creating pictures in the mind purely through language so that by…
Dual control
Revolting (Tuesdays) is the BBC2 comedy series that spawned the now-infamous sketch ‘Real Housewives of Isis’. It has been watched…
Remembrance of things past
The Kite Runner, a novel by Khaled Hosseini, has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. Now it arrives on…
Brown study
I should stop saying I am appalled by every new horror that arises in public life; there are so many…
Dress worn by Yvonne Kenny as Armida in Rinaldo
If you think you haven’t got anything to wear, then Opera Australia may be able to help you. At the…
Simon Collins
As I write this the Trump inauguration is still three days away, so the US intelligence community still has time…
Inauguration notes
The Worst President When it was said that Malcolm Turnbull is the worst Australian Liberal Prime Minister since Sir William…
Calling Dr Hunt
Whatever she may think about her quaint attachment to the Gold Coast being ‘within the rules’, former Health minister Sussan…
